Payroll Manager
Employer Location Southampton, England, Hampshire Salary Competitive DOE Closing date 12 Mar 2026 View more categoriesView less categories Sector, Salary band,, Contract type Hours Where will they be working You need to or to save a job.
Job Details
Payroll Manager - High‑Volume, Fast‑Paced Environment
Location: Southampton Salary: Competitive - dependent on experience
Employment Type: Full-time, permanent
Your new role
A fantastic opportunity has arisen for an experienced Payroll Manager to lead a busy, high‑volume payroll function. This role would suit someone who thrives in a fast-paced environment, enjoys improving processes, and combines strong leadership with hands‑on operational 'll be responsible for managing the payroll team (4 direct reports), ensuring weekly pay cycles run smoothly and accurately, and driving continuous improvement across systems, workflows, and data processes. This is a key operational role with significant influence over the reliability, scalability, and overall quality of payroll delivery.
Key Responsibilities:
1. Lead, mentor and support a payroll team, encouraging accountability, professionalism, and collaboration.
2. Oversee daily workload allocation and performance, while stepping in to support processing during peak periods.
3. Manage and contribute to an end‑to‑end payroll for ,000
4. Process and validate shifts, variable pay, statutory payments, deductions and holiday accruals.
5. Investigate and resolve complex queries quickly, ensuring clear communication to all stakeholders.
6. Support system integrations between payroll and finance.
7. Ensure all activity meets current UK payroll legislation, audit standards, and internal control frameworks.
8. Prepare for, and contribute to, internal and external audits.
9. Evaluate existing workflows and identify opportunities to automate and streamline processes.
10. Develop and maintain clear SOPs that drive consistency and minimise risk.
11. Act as senior escalation point for complex payroll queries.
12. Produce and develop reporting on payroll performance, accuracy, exception trends, and team capacity.
13. Provide insight and recommendations to support operational planning and strategic decision‑making.
What you'll need to succeed
14. Significant experience in high‑volume payroll environments.
15. Strong working knowledge of payroll systems, including configuration or optimisation exposure.
16. Deep understanding of UK payroll legislation and compliance frameworks.
17. Proven experience leading a payroll team while remaining hands-on with processing.
18. Experience with invoice financing would be advantageous.
19. Exposure to workflow redesign, automation or payroll system migration.
What you'll get in return
You'll get a generous starting salary based on your experience, and you will be part of a successful, rapidly growing organisation.
Generous benefits including:
20. Company pension
21. Discounted gym membership
22. Life insurance
23. Employee discount scheme
24. Health & wellbeing programme
25. Cycle-to-work scheme
26. Regular company events
27. Enhanced maternity and paternity leave
28. On‑site parking